This invention relates generally to battery powered mobile terminals, such as but not limited to portable mobile telephones and portable computers, which have limited battery power supplies that become depleted during operation of said mobile terminals.
Portable battery powered devices such as personal mobile terminals that are manually carried by a person, as opposed to static locally powered devices, are operated on a rechargeable battery power supply that becomes depleted during mobile use when not connected to an external source of power such as an AC/DC converter. It is known in battery powered terminals such as mobile telephones to provide a battery monitor circuit to monitor the level of remaining battery power available for telephone call making operations of the mobile telephone. A general display of the battery power remaining is made available upon actuation of an appropriate function key. When the battery power supply level has fallen beneath an absolute minimum limit, or depletion level needed to make or continue an ongoing call, then a special indication or warning is given of this low power disabled condition. Once this disabled condition is reached, it is impossible to use the mobile terminal whatsoever, including emergency use.
It is widely recognized that mobile terminals can be vital for emergency use. Mobile terminals such as mobile telephones enable the user to make emergency calls for police, paramedic and fire fighting services and to make calls to private emergency numbers to parents, spouses and other family relations and to other numbers which one needs to call in the case of emergency.
In order for mobile terminals to remain xe2x80x9cconnectedxe2x80x9d to thereby realize their ability to communicate throughout a network, a link to the network must be established and maintained. In this network constant position updates are required so when another network participant is attempting to reach the particular mobile terminal, it can be determined where to reach the terminal. Thus, power must be consumed during the position updates as well as when the actual data is being transferred within the network.
In the course of the creation of the invention, it has been considered that because people will often not monitor the level of the battery power supply and will also not carry a charged replacement battery, known mobile terminals have a serious shortcoming. It is possible for a mobile terminal to find themselves in an emergency, including a life or death emergency, in which their mobile terminal is disabled because of operation of the terminal for non-emergency use that depleted the battery power supply beneath the minimum absolute limit required to make any use, including emergency use. It is possible for a child or teenager provided with use of a mobile terminal solely for purposes of enabling them to call or receive calls from home or to place calls to other special emergency numbers, to deplete the battery during operation of the mobile terminal during non-emergency calls despite instructions to the contrary.
What is desired, therefore, is a way to allocate a predetermined reserve power level in a mobile for emergency or pre-selected activity use. Filed concurrently with this application is a related application by the same inventor entitled, xe2x80x9cA RESERVE POWER SYSTEM FOR ANY BATTERY OPERATED DEVICExe2x80x9d. The present invention is distinguished from the concurrently filed application in that the prevention of reception, as opposed to prevention of initiating, of calls by the network and mobile terminal is accomplished herein. This is can be done, as described below, by means associated within the network in conjunction with the terminal as well as by means of only within the terminal itself. In the aforementioned concurrently filed application, the mobile terminal was prevented from actuating the send key function when an emergency power situation was present and no functionality occurred at the network level.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to utilize the improved system, method and apparatus for monitoring power levels in a battery operated device, described in the concurrently filed application, to prevent the reception of calls, either by means located in the mobile terminal; by means located at the network level; or both, when the power level of the mobile device is at a predetermined emergency power level.
It is also an object of the present invention to restrict the mobile terminal and network activities related to contacting the network during stand-by in order to protect the capability to place and receive calls to/from a default or user-specified set of numbers.
A mobile terminal with a reserve power system is provided herein, wherein if the mobile terminal has detected that the power level of the power supply connected to it has fallen below a predetermined emergency power reserve level, it will restrict its activities related to the reception of calls and activities related to contacting the network during stand-by in order to protect the capability to place and receive transmissions, such as voice calls, to/from a emergency or user-specified set of numbers (e.g., emergency numbers, number of spouse, number of parents etc.) The restriction on the reception of transmissions can be handled by the network, by the mobile terminal or both.
In accordance with the invention, one embodiment of the present invention is a mobile terminal having a battery power supply with a total power level that declines during operation, a means for detecting when the power level decreases beneath an emergency call reserve level that is greater than the absolute minimum level, a means for alerting the network to which the mobile terminal belongs that the mobile terminal is in a low power state, a means for the network to determine which transmissions are to be allowed to be sent to the mobile terminal when the mobile terminal is in an emergency power state, and a means for preventing the sending of the non-emergency transmissions to the mobile terminal when the mobile terminal is in an emergency power state.
In accordance with the invention, another embodiment of the present invention is a mobile terminal having a battery power supply with a total power level that declines during operation, a means for detecting when the power level decreases beneath an emergency call reserve level that is greater than the absolute minimum level, a means by which the mobile terminal restricts reception on incoming non-emergency transmissions.
In addition, a multi-standard mobile terminal can further reduce its power consumption by preventing operation in (a) high power consumption mode(s) such as in an xe2x80x9canaloguexe2x80x9d mode, after the power level has fallen beneath the emergency power reserve level. In the situation where the user is not expecting any important calls, the mobile can also power down after it has given a warning to the user. If the power level increases above the reserve power level (e.g., the mobile terminal has been connected to an external power supply) the restrictions are removed.
In accordance with the invention, yet another embodiment of the present invention is a mobile terminal having a battery power supply with a total power level that declines during operation, a means for detecting when the power level decreases beneath an emergency call reserve level that is greater than the absolute minimum level, and a means by which the mobile terminal can negotiate with the network a reduction of operations for which it is required to establish radio contact between the network and the mobile terminal.
In accordance with the invention, yet another embodiment of the present invention is a mobile terminal having a battery power supply with a total power level that declines during operation, a means for detecting when the power level decreases beneath an emergency call reserve level that is greater than the absolute minimum level, and a means to determine if the necessary signaling strength exceeds an acceptable predetermined maximum which is applicable after the mobile terminal has entered a protected mode; and a means for preventing continued communication with the network.